My life is in your hands....

I know You have Your reasons for everything

So I will keep believing

Whatever I might be feeling

God, You are my hope, and You’ll be my strength

Anything I don’t have, You can give it to me

But it’s ok if You don’t

I’m not here for those things

The touch of Your love is enough on its own

No matter what, I still love You

And I’m gonna need You

-No Matter What (Kerrie Roberts)

Well once again I find myself apologizing for my absence; life has been crazy-busy since starting school up, but we'll get to all that later. 

I really like the above lyrics, and I think they send a very meaningful message. I know that in my life I tend to question what God sets before me; how many of you do the same thing? Another part of this song that's not listed is that every heartache we have has to go through His hands; he knows what we're going through. We're going to pass through trials and temptations and even though it seems like God is distant, he's right there with us. How many times have we heard "God never leaves you; you leave God"? We can try to run and hide from God, we can say he's left us and we're all alone, but the truth is, is that God is in the same place He has always been. If it seems like your relationship has drifted from Him, then it's time for you to RUN back to Him, because the longer you wait the further you're going to drift from Him. When we come upon hard times we can look at them 3 ways we can whine and complain, we can turn to Him to help us through the situation and then learn from it, or we can have a combination of the two. Unfortunately I tend to drift more toward the last one, I'll complain of some situation I'm faced with but then in the end I'm grateful for all the lessons learned. How much easier would it be if at the start I'd just rely on Him to get me through it....

It's hard when we ask God for something and His response is NO, but so often we tend to take that "No" as a "He didn't answer, and I'll ask Him again". I need to be constantly reminded that even though God tells me no, that's ok, and like the song says "I'm not here for those things".

 The Bible tells us in Matthew 6:19-20: ¹⁹ "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. God did not put us here on this earth to accumulate treasures....because in the end all the money and possessions we get here, we're not going to be able to take with us. Our focus needs to be Him....our focus needs to be on the lost....our focus needs to be on making disciples and carrying His word to the ends of the earth....

Well enough about that....here's an update on life....school has been a roller coaster....I've made some great new friends, and I'm so glad we're all in this together! After a lot of "discussions" with deans and instructors, we all successfully passed first term! Second terms proves to be a tad more hectic and tiring....this term I'm taking Pharmacology I, Anatomy and Physiology II, Foundations of Nursing, Nutrition, and then 2 days of clinicals. Pharm and Foundations are going to be my hardest 2 classes this term....but I've enjoyed them so far. We're told that if we can pass Pharm and Med-Surge (which is next term) then we'll be fine. I started clinicals this week, and they've actually been fun; having to be there at 6:30 AM is not my favorite part, but it's great getting to practice the skills we've learned at school. 

I've kind of had to back off some of what I do with our church just because there's so much to do school and now work wise (more about that later)....but I, with a lot of help, did recently got done planning our 72 Hour Prayer Event. This is something that got started at our church in Memphis (First Evan) by 2 guys who came up with the idea of having one there, and I brought it to Mt. Zion. We did one last year, and decided to do it again this year. It's always a hectic time trying to get all the details figured out, tent set up, reminders set up and what not, but when it's all said and done, it's such a relaxing time. A lot of people think they can't pray for an hour, but believe me, when you get in there that hour flies by! I always "enjoy" my time and we get some good feedback! We're hoping to make it an annual (or someone said a bi-annual) thing!

I finally got a job....It took a LONG time....but as my mom would tell me every time I mentioned I didn't hear anything after turning in an application or going to an interview "I guess that's not where God wanted you", I'm so impatient sometimes....I actually applied at 6 of our local Blockbusters, and got a call back from all but one of them. I ended up taking a job at the Blockbuster in Liberty, which means nothing to some of you, haha! Liberty is a city 30 minutes from my house and 30 minutes from school. It's kind of nice getting job simular to the one I previously had :) 

Well....that's long, so if you made it this far I congratulate you. Heading off to watch How to Train Your Dragon!

Until next time....